The Minnesota Wild (11-2-3) faced the Dallas Stars (10-5-0) on Saturday night at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Minnesota, coming off a 3-0 win against Montreal looked to remain hot, even with the recent news that forward Mats Zuccarello will miss the next 3-4 weeks with a lower body injury which has required surgery.
In the first period of the game against the Canadiens, Zuccarello took a Brock Faber shot to the pecans. Obviously, getting hit by a hard rubber biscuit going 90-100 mph is going to hurt if it gets through your pads, but damn, that smarts. Best wishes to Zucc for good meds and a speedy return.
It’s always a spirited contest when Dallas visits their former home in Minny. Norm Green STILL sucks all these years later as he took the Minnesota North Stars to Dallas after the 1992-93 season. Green is bar-none the most hated man in Minnesota hockey history. Perhaps, in a move to show that this is still the State of Hockey despite the North Stars exit, the Wild wore their alternate jerseys with the North Stars color scheme tonight.
The first period ended with two fights, a 14-6 shot advantage for the Stars and a 1-0 lead for the visiting team. Stars forward Mason Marchment, who has been on a tear lately, scored the lone goal with just over a minute left in the period. Marchment has had seven points in his last two games before coming into Minnesota tonight. Jake Middleton squared off against Brendan Smith, while Zach Bogosian dropped the gloves with former Wild D-man, Matt Dumba.
The Wild definitely had some scoring chances as Middleton rang one off the post far side as he took a Marco Rossi feed and Faber whiffed on a shot after breaking his stick. Facing Lakeville, MN-native, Jake Oettinger in net for Dallas usually means goals for the Wild would be far and few between. While Oettinger denied all shots from Minnesota in the first two periods, Wild tendie, Filip Gustavsson kept the Wild in the game while stopping all twelve Dallas shots.
It looked bleak for the home team until late in the third when Kirill Kaprizov scored off the faceoff, his 11th of the season. Assists went to Jared Spurgeon and Matt Boldy. The Wild definitely felt a momentum shift after Kaprizov’s goal, but Oettinger and the Stars would snuff out any remaining life in the Wild and the Wild lose just their third regulation game of the season. The Wild undoubtedly missed Zuccarello in the lineup tonight, but they put in a solid effort against one of the better teams in the league.
Next up for the Wild is a three-game road trip starting with St. Louis (8-9-1) Tuesday night. That’s it for now, Wild fans. Go Wild!!!
The Morning Skate 